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The Turn of the Tide
You're exhausted because they won't give up. Neither can we.
Quinn Emmett
July 05, 2024
Welcome back.
We’re off for the long holiday weekend here in the US, but re-running an updated version of a popular essay from last year.
Today: Tolkien described life (and often, his stories) as a "long defeat", where evil frequently, inevitably wins.
But he allowed for "eucatastrophe" — sudden joyous turns (just like breakthroughs in elections and voting rights).
We must keep fighting, to hold off the darkness.
— Quinn
PS: Our essays are for Members-only now, but since the original version of this one was free, so it is again.
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I’m Quinn Emmett, and this is science for people who give a shit.
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THE LONG DEFEAT 2.0
The late John Lewis called your right to vote “Precious, almost sacred…the most powerful nonviolent tool or instrument in a democratic society.”
Since Selma, since the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Acts, since Shelby County, voting rights have expanded and then been massively restricted all over again.
In Wisconsin and Alabama just last year, Republicans have fought to preserve power, despite state Supreme Court rulings, and against the clear sentiment of voters, exercised despite illegal gerrymanders, threats of violence, and more.
Across America these last five years, despite a growing population, nearly 2000 polling places have been closed amid hundreds of new anti-voting laws and even more bills.
It can understandably feel like the power structures of old will never, ever stop trying to take your sacred voice and vote away from you.
To be clear: they’re trying to take your voice away from you.
And despite decades of bullshit about small government and family values, your voice and your vote are only the first of many human rights they are actively working to take away from you.
Many of you already know this. They never (ever) wanted you to have a voice in the first place.
But through centuries of Compound Action across millions of people, new voices were incrementally, reluctantly allowed, new votes were cast and counted, new faces and perspectives entered the halls of power.
Not that the kinds of people who forbade them in the first place ever gave up.
Oh, fuck no.
Their tenacity, their seemingly inexhaustible resources and penchant for just I guess whisking Supreme Court justices wherever they want to go, oh and also the hate, well, it all makes it easy to wonder if we’ll ever win.
If we can ever take a breath or a year or an election off, if their insidious tactics, outright corruption, all-consuming sexism, racism, and militant theism make defeat inevitable.
It’s a fair question.
But before we answer it, let’s get some elves involved.
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